Greensburg ? In a safe in the Kiowa County Sheriff’s Office sits a 1920s Thompson submachine gun that can fire 500 to 600 rounds a minute.

Sheriff Kendal Lothman takes it to the shooting range at times, letting deputies take aim with what he calls a piece of local history — the first ever purchased for a law enforcement officer in Kansas. But much of the story of its carrier rests in nearby Haviland Cemetery.

More than 90 years have passed since Mabel Chase was the county sheriff, or, as some claim, the first elected female sheriff in the nation. Yet, only a little is known of her short tenure — one term — from 1926 to 1928.

All that is left is her gun, a few newspaper articles and photos, along with her gravestone, Lothman said.

The gun was purchased because her husband, Frank, the previous sheriff, was a bit worried about his wife.

He convinced the county commission to buy Mabel the machine gun, as well as have her 1926 Hudson armor plated and the windows replaced with bulletproof glass.

“I doubt she used it,” Kiowa County historian Ed Schoenberger said of the gun. “But it would be enough to scare me.”

On Nov. 2, 1926, Chase made history when she was elected sheriff. She wasn’t the first female sheriff, however. According to the book “Police Women: Life with the Badge,” the first woman sheriff was Texan Emma Susan Daugherty Banister. She became the Coleman County sheriff in 1918, after her husband died. Meanwhile, Mary Lois Roach was appointed Graves County, Ky., sheriff in the early 1920s after her husband was shot and killed months after taking the office.

The others, however, were appointed, Lothman said. Chase was elected.

To Mabel, being a sheriff was a job, nothing more. During her first year in office, she headed a raiding party on bootleggers, confiscating a still and 52 gallons of mash, according to the state historical society.

The Chases ended their careers when Mabel’s term expired in January 1929. The couple eventually retired to Arkansas, where Mabel died in 1962. Her family buried her in Haviland Cemetery.